R2-D2 - LC - Basic (BD29)

Scavenging Jawas find R2-D2 in the Jundland Wastes. They incapacitate the droid and attach a restraining bolt to keep him from escaping. The plucky astromech droid is then place in the cluttered hold of the Jawas’ sandcrawler.

“Oh
my goodness! Machines creating machines? How
perverse!” This
quote from Star
Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones immediately
comes to our minds when looking
at the new R2-D2 figure in the A
New Hope wave
of the Legacy
Collection.
For R2-D2 is the first astromech
droid to include an astromech droid part in
the very popular Droid Factory pack-in series
and while it is a warped sense of humor on
our part, we can’t help but chuckle over it. R2-D2
gets a new Episode IV update and he
is loosely based on the sequence when he is first captured
by Jawas via
electrocution and then has
a restraining bolt affixed to
his body. To be quite frank with you, the figure
looks splendid. It has a battle-worn and trek
weary appearance that only can be effective
with the use of dirty washes and this figure
has plenty. The blue that colors his panels
and other details is now a metallic color and
light picks up all of the glittery characteristics it
has. The red port on his front and yellow port
on his back are evenly
colored and not outside of the lines. And while
they are not too bright themselves, they add
just the right amount of extra details needed
to make R2-D2 as authentic as possible from
Episode IV.
The best part of this new R2-D2 is his dome,
but we will get to that in a few moments. Time
certainly has the ability to bring action figures
to a new level and this is true here.

This
R2-D2 figure is nothing too special outside of
its decorations. Utilized
a half a dozen times already, this figure is based
on the 2005
TSC Early
Bird Figures R2-D2 figure (which is a direct descendant
of the 2004 VOTC R2-D2 figure). The panel which
was previously removable
has been glued into place (again) and this time
a non-removable
restraining bolt has been added to it. We would
have love to seen a removable restraining bolt
included, but Hasbro for some reason decided
not to go in this direction. We are sure many
of you are relieved by this since you do not
like holes in your action figures. But
we still think this added detail would have done
a great deal for the play value of the figure. As
we looked back in our action figure history,
we were surprised to discover that only one other
R2 unit has had the restraining bolt added. And
that figure was the very elusive 1999 POTF2 [FF/CT]
R2-D2 (With “Holographic” Princess
Leia) figure. An amazing decade has past since that figure
was released and what a metamorphosis R2-D2 has
gone through indeed. R2-D2 gets the dulled metallic
dome as most of us have wanted for
years and we are thankful
that the
shiny silver dome has been put to rest. At least
we hope not to see this vac-metallized attempt
resurrected back into the line ever again. R2-D2
looks great now and more authentic than ever.
When you turn his head, his sensorscope goes
up and back down again. Not a feature we absolutely
needed, we think a little more work should be
placed on making this appendage look a little
more realistic. It has a much too thick stem
and we think it works against the action figure
a bit. Besides, we don’t think that this
version of R2-D2 needed this functionality.

R2-D2
comes with a removable third leg and the blast
effect from the Jawa ionization blaster. While
it doesn’t look amazing, it absolutely
does an effective job as serving as the figure's
added accessory. It fits over his dome quite
well but we think were it a brighter blue, it
may have been even more effective in recreating
that energy that debilitated
R2. Outside these points, R2-D2 is simply, well,
R2-D2. We look forward to seeing updates of version
we already received with the new dome. It truly
is a beautiful sight to behold and we think it
is terribly overdue. Wave 3 of the Legacy
Collection has brought us three retooled
vintage styled figures including Chewbacca
(BD31), Han
Solo (BD30) and now R2-D2. Hasbro
has certainly gotten their money’s worth
out of these figures. But they are also smart
enough to reinvent
them to provide collectors with figures that
are "new enough" for our collections.
R2-D2 undoubtedly provides a refreshingly pleasant
new look at R2-D2 and we are sure multitudes
of you
out there are looking to update your 1999 POTF2
R2-D2 figure. This is the figure that
is worthy of replacing it and we encourage you
to hold onto the "Holographic Princess Leia" figure
to use with this new one. Add this R2-D2 to your
collections. It will fit in nicely with your
Sandcrawler display and even 2008's TLC Disturbance
At Lars Homestead playset (if you
have not passed on it). This R2-D2 has given
collectors a wonderful update on a classic figure
and we are thrilled to have it in our collections.

Collector Notes

R2-D2

Status: R2-D2 is a kit-bashed figure that utilizes the R2-D2 figure from 2005's TSC Early Bird Figures set with an all-new non-removable side panel that includes a restraining bolt. The blast effect is an all-new sculpt.